are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.
Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:
1) A state of equilibrium at the outset.
2) A disruption of the equilibrium by some action.
3) A recognition that there has been a disruption.
4) An attempt to repair the disruption.
5) A reinstatement of the equilibrium.
This type of narrative structure is very familiar to us and can be applied to many ‘mainstream’ film narratives although it does not apply to the film "Halloween". In Halloween stage on does not happen. The film starts off with a disruption which is the boy killing his sister so the film starts at stage two. Stage three also applies to the film as the recognition of the disruption is the father and mother finding their son with the knife in his hand. Stage four is applicable as the attempt to repair the disruption as when the villan, Mike Myers, escapes from the asylum his Doctor tries to find him and stop him. He also alerts the police who also attempt to stop the villan. Stage five never happens in the film as the the film ends with the acknowledgement that the villan still alive. This was done as it was easy to have a sequal to the film.
Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:
1) The villain (struggles against the hero)
2) The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3) The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4) The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5) The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)
6) The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7) The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess ctim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
Only some of the characters apply to the film. Obviously there is a villain which is Mike Myers as he is the killer. There is no donor in the film who prepares or gives the hero some magical object. You could argue that there was a helper in the film which was the police officer but he didnt do anything major that we could see in the film which suggests he was helping but out of the scene we would believe he was searching for the villan as advised by the Doctor Lumis. There is no real "princess" in the film but we could say that Laurie is the closest character to fufil that role as she is the villans main target. There is also no false hero character in the film and there is also no character who could be called the dispatcher. There are many victims in the film who are mainly distracted teenagers, friends of Laurie, the villans main target.
Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL - we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. Levi -Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged inthe plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. There are many opposing themes in Halloween, which are:
- good VS evil - Laurie and Mike
- young and innocent VS older and wiser - children, Laurie and Doctor Loomis
- virginal VS promiscuous - Laurie and her friends
- aware VS unaware - Laure, her friends and The Sheriff
- light VS dark - daytime and nightime
- life VS death - Laurie, children, Doctor Loomis survive and Lauries friends die
Bordwell and Thompson defined narratives as 'a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship [...] occurring in time and space'. They believe that a narrative typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally a new situation arises that brings the end of he narrative. Narrative shapes material in terms of time and space-it defines where things take place, when they take place, how quickly they take place. Technical techniques are used to manipulate our awareness of time and place; flashbacks, replays of action, slow motion, speeding up, jumping between places and times. When we watch a film we naturally try to make a connection and try and see a cause and effect. This is by far the most important factor in narrative because even if there is no obvious connection, we still try to make one, we do this because this is what we do to make sense of the world. The events are very clear in Halloween.
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